5 Of The Strangest Insurance Policies

This is the standard definition of insurance: “A practice or arrangement by which a company or government agency provides a guarantee of compensation for specified loss, damage, illness, or death in exchange for a premium.” And when most of us think of being insured we think of the basics: life, home, car, health, dental. But these are far from the only types of policies available for purchase – and some of them are just downright strange. Here are 5 of the strangest insurance policies from around the globe:1) Alien Abduction Yes, this is real and it’s actually more common and popular than you might think. There are many believers of outer worldly beings, so much so that over 30 000 alien abduction policies have been sold throughout Europe alone. The first company to ever offer such insurance was located in Altamonte Springs. Florida and was called the “St. Lawrence Agency”. In Canada you can insure yourself against alien abduction for as little as a one time payment of $9.99 for a ten million dollar policy – of course, you’ll need to provide proof in order to take advantage of the claim. 2) Body PartsDid you know that you can claim money on your most valued body parts? Famous athletes and entertainers who depend on certain parts for their livelihood actually do this quite often. Bruce Springsteen, for example, is said to have his voice insured for six million dollars. And while insuring something like your voice may make some sense, there are other parts of the body that are just as commonly insured. Heidi Klum has her legs insured for $2 million each and Jennifer Lopez insured her world-famous buttocks for an outstanding $27 million. If that’s not strange enough, moustache and tongue insurance are also a thing. Oh – and Tom Jones has a $7 million policy – on his chest hair. 3) Death from laughter First off, let’s start by saying that yes, death by laughter is a real thing. While an extremely rare form of death, laughing too hard can actually lead to asphyxiation or cardiac arrest. Death by laughter insurance was actually taken out by one comedy troupe. They were so confident in the humour of their show, that they took out a policy with Lloyd’s of London in case one of their audience members dropped dead from laughing. Ironically, we find this very funny.4) Immaculate ConceptionImmaculate conception may not be a real thing – but immaculate conception insurance is. In the year 2000, a British company took out a one million dollar policy on 3 sisters in case any of them should experience an immaculate conception. According to the policy, if any of the sisters conceived a child without having sex, they would be paid out one million dollars. The cost of such a policy? £100 a year. Again, the burden of proof lays on the sisters so unless they could prove they didn’t have sex (which we imagine would be very difficult to do) they would never get their money.5) Spooksafe Ever feel like your house is haunted? (And no, we don’t mean by your children!) If so, you might want to think about Spooksafe. This type of insurance is offered by a provider by the name of Ultraviolet who has currently sold over 500 policies. It protects against injury or death caused by ghosts, poltergeists, and other types of paranormal activity. Don’t believe in ghosts but do believe in vampires? Don’t worry, should you ever be turned into a werewolf of vampire, this policy will still protect you!Insurance companies claim to be there to protect our money – not take it from us. But some companies and policies prove otherwise. On the flip side, who knows what is really out there. If you are ever abducted by aliens or bitten by a vampire – at least you have backup!